The best Reuben sandwich.

Every weekday, I eat a sandwich for lunch. It’s less expensive than school food, and it tastes a whole lot better. Do I get sick of it (or should I say, fed up)?

Yea.

A couple of weeks ago, I was on a major Reuben sandwich kick. I would bring my waffle maker as a sandwich press, and hot press my bagged delight everyday, and it was oh so good… until it wasn’t.’I’m not making them right’, I thought to myself. The kraut was starting to feel toxic to my nose, the corned beef was too dry for my liking, and the swiss cheese was not as holy as I made it out to be (still, it is holey).

But yesterday, I had a sandwich from my local library’s café. Yes, it was Reuben. And, it was delicious. ‘What is my local library doing to make their sandwiches better than mine?’, I thought, as I dripped hot Thousand Island excess over my AP US textbook. The kraut, the crunch and the odor, the gift and the curse, was much more present. The meat was layered in two stacks only, dissimilar to my four layer tower. The cheese was unreasonably goopy, yet, it tasted much better than my homemade madness.

Compare the two sandwiches (mine and the library’s). Somehow, the negative aspects made the sandwich better as a whole, compared to what I made. Good sushi is not just fish and rice band-aided together with seaweed, but it is what it is: sushi, and it shouldn’t taste like parts of a whole. Yes, a good Reuben sandwich should be like sushi, the parts of the whole should balance each other out, if that makes any sense at all.

So what makes a good Reuben sandwich? Here’s a recipe I conjured.

A TASTY, BALANCED REUBEN SANDWICH

You’re gonna need:

-Two slices of rye bread

-Two layers of corned beef (layers = area of bread slices)

-Uno slice of swiss cheese

-Sauerkraut (a layer will suffice)

-Thousand Island dressing (a very thin layer)

-A bread knife (to spread the Thousand Island dressing)

-A pan and a stove that can fry (or a waffle maker will suffice)

one: gather all your materials!

two: starting with the base bread, place two layers of corned beef.

three: get some Thousand Island dressing on that cow. Yes! Spread that around on top, share the love.

four: Be careful with the sauerkraut. Make sure it’s not too drippy, don’t put too little on, but don’t put too much on. It’s a balancing act, for sure.

five: Place the swiss slice on top of the sauerkraut. Then, the top bread slice.

six: Fry that bad boy!

Try that recipe sometime. It’s not very specific, so there’s many ways to remix it. Personally, I like pepper jack over swiss cheese sometimes, but that’s up to you. Throw some chips and a pickle with it too, if you must.

Next week, I will explore more with Reuben sandwiches or maybe something different.